Sailor Moon Requiem
by Raziel12
Summary: An ancient foe has risen. The shadows of the past have returned. Hotaru must learn to confront who and what she is as the darkness inside her grows ever stronger.
1. Chapter 1

Sailor Moon Requiem 01 : Nocturne Of Shadow 

I like to listen, to the house, to the street outside, to everything. I like to listen, when it's quiet, and the only thing that I can hear, really hear, is my breathing, soft, calm, almost musical.

Sometimes I don't hear very much at all, nothing more than the muffled rumble of a car outside, or the gentle rustle of the wind outside my window. But every now and then, I hear her. She sings, so softly that I have to strain to hear her, and even then all I can catch is the cadence of the song, while the words slip through my fingers.

I wonder, sometimes, what she sings about, and why the song sounds so familiar, because I've never heard anyone else sing a song like that. One day I'll ask her, but somehow, I don't think she'd reply.

Sometimes, when she sings, I see things, old things, things best left forgotten. And sometimes, when she's singing and I fall asleep I dream of things, wonderful things, terrible things, ancient things…

Yesterday she sang, and yesterday I dreamed. I dreamed that I wasn't a schoolgirl anymore, living with her adoptive parents, I dreamed that I was something else. I dreamed that I was sleeping, and that I'd been sleeping for a long, long time and then something woke me up. I dreamed of her.

The door to my room creaks open and she's standing there, but all I can see are her eyes, her old, old crimson eyes. For a moment we simply stay there, more comfortable in silence than in words.

"It's late, Hotaru," she says at last. "You should go to bed."

And then, before I can stop myself I speak. "Why do you sing when no one will hear you?"

For a second, just a second I see something in her eyes beside that eternal, seemingly unshakeable calm. But the emotion is swift, fleeting, and it is gone before I can be sure of what it was. Was it grief, or perhaps, regret?

"Why do you ask?" The wall is up again, hard, impenetrable. Timeless.

And it makes me angry to see her do that, to pretend that she doesn't feel the way the rest of us do. Why can't she see what it does to everyone around her? It hurts me, to know she doesn't trust me enough to show me how she feels.

"Don't lie to me, Setsuna." For some reason it feels right to address her like that, not as a daughter to a mother, but as an equal. "I've heard you singing, I just want to know why."

She turns, and for a moment, I fear she won't reply, but as she leaves, she speaks, and her words carry crisply through the cold night air.

"Because it's all I have of her," and her voice is so terribly sad as she says this. "And it's all that I'll ever have."

And then she's gone, and I'm lying in my bed, waiting for her to start singing again. Only she doesn't, and before I know it I'm asleep and I'm dreaming again, dreaming that I'm waking up…

Awaken… 

_My eyes flutter open and the world swims slowly into focus. There is someone in front of me… she's tall… is she an… enemy? No, she can't be… I know her… she wears the uniform of a senshi… and in her hands… the Time Key… Pluto…_

_There is crystal around me, and she's speaking. I read her lips because almost nothing of the sound carries through the crystal. She wants me to awaken… to get out… to come with her… why?_

_And then it hits me… _

_The death throes of an empire… a solar system awash in a sea of blood and fire… _

_The crystal shatters in an instant and I fall to the floor. She is by my side in a moment. Strange, she does not seem afraid of me… the last time… the last time I awakened… they were all afraid._

"_Sailor Saturn," her voice is strong, firm, familiar. I like it. "Sailor Saturn, we must hurry."_

_I look down at my hand, clasped tightly in hers, and notice for the first time that I am naked. Perhaps she does as well, for she releases my hand and turns away. It matters not, a moment later and I am clothed, sheathed in the regalia of my station. _

_I try to stand, only to stumble. It has been too long since last I walked. Without thinking I push her helping hands aside and reach out for something else. Through the warp and flow of magic I find what I am searching for and it materialises in my hand. It is lighter than I remember, but it still feels the same, dead, and yet, somehow alive. Thousands of voices fill my mind, from all those who have come before, and yet, when I try to focus on one, to pick one out from all the others, they fade away, leaving only silence._

_She is looking at me now, and now, now she is afraid. Her face pales, and her crimson eyes are all the more lovely for it, as is her emerald hair. For an instant she looks young and then I see her eyes and know better. I remember now… this one… the only one who understands…_

"_Come, Sailor Saturn," she says. "We must go."_

_I say nothing, for there is nothing left to say. The solar system is lost, awash with the corrupted spawn of the negaverse. Only one course of action remains, and it is why I have been awakened._

_Destroyer, some called me, Slayer of Worlds, said others. It matters not what name I am given, the end is always the same. I close my eyes and will myself to the place where it all began, and where it all must end. The moon._

_My essence rides the solar wind, upon wings of violet ribbon, and in my wake I leave nothing, only silence and despair. Like a bolt of lightning I shoot through the asteroid belt, only my thunder does not roar, it whispers, quiet and deadly. Silence._

_I reach the moon, and feel a ripple in the fabric of reality as Pluto joins me. We float above it all, the destruction, the death, the gore. From high above, I gaze down at the Sea of Serenity, at the swirls of red that mar its pristine waters, and at the bodies that its currents drag to and fro. _

_The youma have sensed us, for now they turn their eyes upwards, from the desecrated cities and palaces of the moon, to the skies, to me. A million screaming demons roar their challenge, I need only whisper my reply._

"_Die."_

_And they do, in their tens of thousands they do. They lack even the time to scream as I strike them down. Wherever my gaze falls, death follows, as slender ribbons of lavender power arc downwards and scythe through the ranks of youma. _

_The glaive quivers in my hand. It is time. I have dallied long enough. _

"_Go." The words is neither an order or a request, but simply a statement of fact. Pluto nods, she understands, and yet in her eyes, the glimmer of tears? It is time._

"_Death…"_

_Pluto vanishes and the power builds up inside of me, it builds and builds and builds. I can feel the pressure in my chest, and it is suddenly hard to breath. _

"_Reborn…"_

_Violet lightning crackles into existence around me, and the glaive sings with power as I lift it high above my head. It is time, it is time, it is time._

"_Revolution!"_

_There is a moment of perfect silence. Nothing makes a sound, not the youma, not the fires burning all across the surface of the moon, not the roar of thunder all around me, nothing. Silence spills outwards, consuming everything in the solar system. For a single, impossibly small moment, I am at peace, revelling in the glorious ecstasy of my power. And then it comes, the hum, the whisper, the roar, the scream, the power._

_Violet and lavender ribbons explode outwards in every direction, enveloping the moon in less than a second, the rest of the solar system inside of a minute. Everything they touch simply ceases to be, and destruction, unrivalled, unparalleled, unlimited reigns._

Author's Notes

Well, here I am, with another Saturn centric fanfic in store for everyone. I had a lot of fun with my last fanfic, so I'm trying my hand at something new, a proper, novel like story centred around Hotaru. As you can probably tell, this part concerns her past, or rather, Saturn's past, exactly how it's relevant I won't say just yet .

But, anyway, enough of me prattling on. What do you think? Good, bad, ugly? Drop me a line, because, seriously, feedback just makes my day…. I just hope I'm not too rust lol.


	2. Chapter 2

Sailor Moon Requiem 02 : Funeral Dirge 

"Okay girls, gather round."

It's PE today, with Toshida-sensei, and it looks like we'll be playing basketball. I've never liked PE much, not because Toshida-sensei is a bad teacher, because she's not. The reason I don't like PE is because, simply put, I've never been any good at it.

That's one of the reasons I love being a senshi. When I'm Saturn, I don't feel weak. My chest doesn't tighten up from running just a few hundred metres, and I don't trip over my own feet.

However, I do like basketball. I like to blame it on Haruka-papa, because for as long as I can remember she's had the NBA on cable. I remember how, when I was little, she used to sit me on her lap and we'd watch the games together. She watched because she wanted to see who won, me, I watched so I could see the players. There was something in the way they moved, so gracefully despite their size, and when they jumped it was like they were flying. I wish I could move like that.

"You, Tomoe." I turn, Toshida-sensei is looking at me, her kind face a little worried. "Can you play?"

A low murmur runs through the class, as it always does when we have PE. They're all wondering if I, the little sick girl, will be able to play. Some of them are genuinely concerned, and in a way their worry warms me, some of them are just angry, annoyed that I've held up their game. I try to ignore them.

"Yes."

"All right then," Toshida-sensei says. "You guys get warmed, I've just got to finish up a little paper work. I'll be back in a second." And then, just like that she's gone, leaving my class to its own devices in the gym.

I find a corner where I'm fairly certain I won't be disturbed, and get started on my stretches. Sometimes, I don't know why I bother. Flexibility has never been a problem for me, it's just that I've never had any stamina. As I stretch, I watch the other girls.

Some of them are really quite nice. They consider themselves my friends, and in a way they are. We speak in class, we speak on the train, and we walk home together. But I never see them outside of that, and somehow, that doesn't bother me. Some of them are not so nice. They are the ones who never have the courage to tell you, to your face, that they don't like. Instead they write things on toilet doors, or whisper just loud enough for you to hear.

Freak…

Weakling…

I've heard those before, and they've long stopped having any effect on me. When you fight off youma in your spare time, little insults like that stop mattering.

Toshida-sensei hurries back in. "All right, girls, let's get you divided up into teams and get a game started."

A few minutes later and I'm standing on the basketball court with the ball in my hands. It is time to play. The first five minutes goes well, at least by my standards. I don't do much, but I get a couple of passes in, and one of my shots goes in. Not too shabby. But I don't like the look some of the girls on the other team are giving me. They're the ones who aren't very nice, and I think they've been waiting for this.

You see, it wouldn't be right to pick on a weakling like me, in fact, it's the sort of thing that gets you sent straight to the principal. But on the other hand, if I've got the ball, and they should, how shall I say it, unintentionally foul me… well that would be another matter altogether.

It doesn't take them much longer. The ball flies in my direction and I lunge forward to catch it. Out of the corner of my eye, I see something move and I try to get my balance back. Before I can, someone slams into me and down I go. The floor is hard, and cold beneath me, and I look up to find a grinning face above me.

"What's the matter, Tomoe?" It is Chihiro standing over me with a Cheshire grin.

I'd like to say that I've never been in this position before, but I have, too many times.

"Come on, Tomoe, you just going to lie there like a dog?"

I hear Toshida-sensei shouting as she rushes over, Slowly, because the fall knocked the wind out of me, I try to get back up, only Chihiro won't let me. Her foot snakes out and kicks my hands out from under me and I fall back down.

"Slipped, did you?"

Normally I'd be almost in tears by this point, but for some reason, for some reason I feel nothing. It's like I've cried all my tears and now there's nothing left, only… only emptiness. The thought chills me.

Instead I just get up, and wave Toshida-sensei away. I'm fine, I tell her, I'm fine. Only I'm not, because the emptiness still won't go away, and all through the game I can feel it, growing.

After the game, I'm in the change room when it happens again. Chihiro sticks her foot out and trips me over. Once again she stands over me, laughing, along with all of her vicious little friends. Only this time there's no teacher here to help, there's just me and her.

"Yo, Tomoe," she taunts. "What's the matter?"

She pokes me with her foot, then kicks me, hard. The kick hits me right in the stomach and the world goes almost dark. Dimly, I can hear the other girls, some of them anyway, trying to get her to stop. One of them runs out to get the teacher. And then she kicks me again, and everything else fades to black, except for her voice, taunting me, pushing me…

"_Again!"_

_Something hits me hard in the stomach and I crumple. Before I can move they are upon me, kicking me, punching me, hitting me._

"_Enough!" That voice again._

_I rise slowly, blood trickling from my lip._

"_Is this the best that you can do?" He's mocking me, taunting me, pushing me. "Again!"_

_They come at me again, except this time I'm ready. It's almost as if they're moving in slow motion. I lean just far enough to the right to avoid a punch that would have shattered my nose. I lash out with a punch of my own, and the man goes down. I'm not sure if he's dead, and frankly I don't care. All that matters is the battle._

_Another punch, another kick, more and more and more. All I can hear now, all I can feel, is the blood in my veins, as I duck and dive and twist. There are too many of them, too many by far, and I can feel some of their blows get through. A kick to the chest, a punch to the cheek, a kick to the thigh… pain…_

"_Fight!" He roars. "Fight!"_

_A punch shoots through my defences and hurls me backwards. I lie on the ground, coughing, and the taste of blood fills my mouth. _

"_Is this who you are?"_

_I struggle to rise, as they come slowly forward again. This is not all who I am. A kick hurtles towards my head. I duck beneath it and hurl myself upwards. His rib cage practically shatters when my knee strikes him full in the chest. I block the next kick, taking the weight of it on my arms, as I grab the leg and twist. I bring him down with me and he screams. I've dislocated his hip._

_This, I realise, as I throw myself into the others, this is who I am. Everything else just fades away…_

_Suddenly, suddenly the world returns and I blink. It is quiet, so very quiet. I look down and realise that I'm holding someone in my arms…_

"_This…" he laughs as he speaks, even as the blood bubbles up between his lips. "Is who you are…" _

_And then he is dead and I drop him and scramble backwards, trying to run, to hide, to… there is blood on my hands. And on my legs… and my stomach… and on my face… there is blood in my mouth as well… I don't think that it is mine._

_Slowly, it dawns on me, the only sound I can hear is the wind, harsh and cold against my cheek. There is blood on the floor, and the walls, and their bodies are everywhere. There are gouges in their chests, rips in their flesh, torn in the shape of human hands. Dimly I look down at my hands… I will them to open and the urge to retch is almost too strong to resist._

_There is hair in my hand, brown hair. My hair is purple. Not far away from me I can see a man, one of my opponents, with a tuft of hair missing, ripped from his head, along with his eyes. What have I done?_

_I scream… and scream… and scream…_

_And no one answers._

_There is only silence_

_Silence._

I'm conscious again and I see the foot, Chihiro's foot shooting toward me. Something, instinct, tells me that I won't be able to dodge so instead I curl my body around her foot, taking the impact as best I can. And suddenly her ankle is in my hands, and it's easy, so easy.

All I do is hold on as I jerk my body to the side. She falls to her right, only her ankle isn't going that way. The sound of her scream drowns out the crack as the joint breaks. She is screaming and I can see her face contort as she screams and screams and screams. Only I can't hear anything.

Smack.

That is the sound my fist makes when it strikes her squarely in the jaw. Her head jerks violently to one side as she tries to get her hands up, tries to defend herself. It's pointless.

Smack. Smack. Smack

My heart is hammering in my chest now, and the pain is so sharp that I can barely move. But my hands, no, my fists, keep moving to a steady, cruel rhythm. I want to stop, I want to, but I can't… I can't…

"Get off her!" Toshida-sensei bursts into the room and grabs me by the shoulders and tries to pull me off. It takes her, and another two girls just to pin my arms.

Chihiro somehow manages to wriggle out from under me. I see her face, it is bloody and bruised and there are tears coursing down her cheeks. I drop to my knees and clutch my chest. It hurts, it hurts so bad that all I can see is darkness and all I can hear is silence.

Silence…

I look down at my hands and notice, for the first time, the blood all over them and I scream. I scream and scream and scream, only my mouth won't open, and I can't hear my scream anywhere except inside my head.

Darkness wells up, a deep, hungry darkness and I let it take me, let it carry me far from the gym change room and my blood stained hands. It's so familiar.

Silence.

Author's Note

… Well that was dark, now wasn't it? First off, let me say that I don't think the Silver Millenium was all peaches and cream. Sailor Saturn supposedly never awakens unless the end of the world is coming, but what if, what if she did? Would she be able to control that power inside her, would she want to? And what would happen if you trained her, if you taught how to be more than just powerful, how to be more than just an engine of destruction? What if you taught her not just to destroy, but to kill?

Heh. For those of you who didn't work it out, although there can't be that many of you, the flash back was part of Saturn's memories. As for what year of high school she is in, well I decided to put her in the final year of senior high, making this fic several years after the end of Sailor Moon.

As always I welcome anything you have to say. I know this story is probably a bit convoluted or twisted ( or probably both ), but bear with me, it has been a while. But other than that, do tell me what you think, okay? Feedback makes the world go round.


	3. Chapter 3

**Sailor Moon Requiem 03 : Whispering Waltz**

There is nothing in the world quite like the smell of a hospital. And then it hits me, the old, stale smell of overly recycled air and cleaning chemicals. Bleach, disinfectant, blood, it's the scent of a lingering death.

I walk up to the front desk, the information desk, and ask about Hotaru. They give me a room number, and a brief, almost sympathetic smile. Take the second left, they tell me, then go straight down the corridor. Number fifty-seven, you can't miss it.

And they're right, there's no way I can miss it. It's not because the numbers are brightly painted on the doors, because they're not. It's because Haruka's shouting at the top of her lungs, and underneath all of that I can hear Michiru, sobbing softly, and then, if I listen just a little more, the faint, steady beep of a heart monitor. I quicken my pace just a little. I can only hope Haruka isn't doing anything too foolish.

I open the door to find Haruka towering over another woman, her eyes like cobalt diamonds, hard, and cold, and filled with fury.

"Damn it," Haruka's voice is hoarse, almost likes she's been crying. "Why didn't you tell us she was being bullied? We're her parents, we had a right to know!"

"Haruka, please." Michiru has managed to snare one of Haruka's arms and she's pulling it, trying to hold her lover back.

"Michiru," Haruka growls. "Stay out of this." And then she turns back to the other woman, Hotaru's teacher, I think. "Well, damn it, are you going to answer me?"

I narrow my eyes. Haruka has always had a bit of a temper, she always will, but her anger will not get us anywhere, not here. Besides, she looks like she's about to hit Hotaru's teacher, and the last thing we need is for Haruka to get arrested.

"Haruka Tenou, that is enough."

She whirls around and gapes at me, stunned. She probably didn't hear me come in. For a moment she looks embarrassed, like a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar, and then the anger returns, and it's as hot as before.

"Setsuna," I can hear the fury in her voice. "You took your sweet time getting here." She stops there, but I can hear the implication : was there something more important?

"Haruka," It is Pluto who speaks now, not Setsuna. "You will sit."

She stares at me again, and I see her fists clench at her sides. But in the end she takes a seat by Hotaru's bedside and sits down. It is then, for the first time that I let myself look at Hotaru.

She looks so pale with her dark, almost black, purple hair plastered against her forehead, her skin like faded alabaster. On the angular plane of one cheek I can see a tinge of purple, a bruise, and I glance downwards at the chart that details her injuries. She has a cracked rib and bruising to the chest, stomach and face. Those are not the sort of injuries you get in a fight, they are the sort you get in a beating.

I turn my eyes, fully aware of how intimidating their crimson depths must be, upon her teacher. She squirms beneath my gaze and I take a moment to enjoy that guilty, savage pleasure.

"What happened?" I need not threaten her with any physical violence, because unlike Haruka, my tone carries more than just the threat of violence.

"I…" She stutters as she tries to meet my gaze. "I…" and then she picks herself up and almost staggers from the room. "I think you should come with me."

I follow her and motion for the others to do the same, but not before I throw a final, warning glance at Haruka. She returns my look with a glare.

The teacher leads us to another room, not that far from Hotaru's, with a young girl, perhaps the same age, as my daughter upon it. I steal a look at her chart. A broken ankle, a fractured jaw, severe bruising to the face, concussion and a suspected fractured cheek bone.

"This girl…" The teacher says at last, pausing as if unable to believe what she's saying. "This girl and Hotaru got into a fight."

"Bullshit!" Haruka's voice cuts across the room like a whip. "No way would my daughter ever get into a fight and besides," she lowers her voice. "We all know that Hotaru isn't capable of something like this."

"I thought so to," the teacher says. "I though so to… but it took me and three other students to get her off Chihiro and even then it took another four to hold her down long enough for me to get Chihiro away from her."

"Toshida-sensei." We all turn to find another schoolgirl by the door, her face still slightly moist from her tears, the edges of her shirt crumpled in her hands. "I was wondering if you wanted anything from the hospital café?"

Something about the girl is familiar, and then it clicks. She is one of the 'nice' girls, the ones who never picked on Hotaru. To be honest, they weren't exactly friendly either, but they were kind enough.

"Excuse me," and my voice is soft now, as I lower it just enough to soothe the obviously jittery girl's nerves. "You're one of Hotaru's classmates, did you see what happened?"

She looks startled for a moment and looks at her teacher who simply nods. With a sigh, and something that was almost a sob, she began to speak. It takes her all of two minutes to tell us what happened. By the time she's finished it takes all my will power not to storm out of the room and wake Hotaru up. I need to know if it's _her_ because all of it, the fighting, the cold, brutal efficiency, all of it, was not Hotaru's, it was _hers…_

"_Lady Pluto, I am honoured that you have chosen to join us."_

_Instead of bowing, I simply incline my head. I can see the mirth dancing in my Queen's eyes, for we have known each other a long time, she and I and this is merely another one of our games._

"_The honour is mine, my Queen." The corner of my mouth quirks up, but she knows exactly what it means. Why so formal, old friend?_

_Low murmurs of discontent rumble through her entourage as she returns my smile. The others have never understood my 'disobedience', though I can hardly blame them. Few live as long as I do, and fewer still know how close my Queen and I once were, how close we still are._

"_Leave us," she says, dismissing the courtiers and seneschals and other officials with a wave of her hands. And then, when we are alone in the hall, its vast emptiness all around us, she speaks again. "It has been some time, Pluto."_

"_Yes, my Queen, it has." And it has been. Twenty years? Thirty? I've long since stopped counting. "But then, I am sure this is no mere social call."_

"_No," and she smiles, a soft smile. It's the smile I love, not the smile she puts on for the masses, but the one she smiles just for me. I smile back. "It is not." And then she gestures once more with those graceful hands of hers and an image forms in the air._

"What is this?" The images are a mass of colour, purple, crimson, black. It is impossible to make sense of any of it. "Serenity?"

"_Wait." _

_And then the images slow, coming sharply into focus and my eyes widen. There is a girl there, perhaps twelve years old, and she is wearing… no…. no…_

_A youma jumps at her from the side and she merely turns her head and it is gone. It explodes in a shower of gore, as if cleaved by some tremendous invisible blade. More of the youma appear, leaping at her from all sides, some even bursting up from under the ground._

_Her hands blur. Steel hard flesh is reduced to pulp and bones shatter. Her foot lashes out. Her kick catches one of the youma in the head. It dies in a heartbeat, its brains, as well as most of its skull splattered onto the wall behind it._

_Violet light curls around the girl's fist and she smashes it into the youma nearest to her. It seems to shake for a moment, its whole body quivering like an enormous bowstring, before it snaps and comes apart. The youma are trying to run now, but they don't get far. Ribbons of lavender light lash out and whatever they touch simply ceases to be. She kills them with a calm methodical brutality, using the ribbons to immobilise them before finishing them off with her bare hands. Calm and efficient, she is death given flesh._

"_Pluto," my Queen's voice snaps me from my observation. "Do you understand now?"_

"_Saturn." The name leaves my lips almost like a curse. "Saturn has awakened."_

Author's Notes

Yo! Nice to see you all back again for another chapter of my fic. As you can tell, this is again separated into two parts, basically the present, and the past. Hopefully, I've been revealing things at the right rate ( I don't want to give everything away, but I don't want to be too obtuse either ). As you have probably noticed, it isn't exactly canon either, but given the complete lack of effort put into the history of Saturn or Pluto… heh, we're not losing much.

As always, I encourage all of you to review. You don't know how much a difference it makes. Besides, I practically live off reviews, so don't let me go without ;;.


	4. Chapter 4

Sailor Moon Requiem 04 : Mournful Sonata 

_The blunted practise sword whips up and through my guard and suddenly I'm tasting blood, my blood, as I sprawl backwards and onto the cold, stone floor._

"_Get up!"_

_It hurts to move. My side, my arm, my head… I can't even begin to count the cuts and bruises and still… still I have to…_

"_Get up!"_

_My own practise sword lies on the ground, not more than a metre away. It's so close… there… it's in my hand… now all I have to do is stand… yes… just a little bit more… just… just a bit more effort… there…_

_Slowly I raise my sword in front of me as my legs still, their injuries forgotten, everything, absolutely everything except my sword and my enemy forgotten. I ease into my stance and in front of me I see him smile, nothing more than just a quiver of the lip, but it is enough. I know he is proud of me._

"_Again!"_

_I dash across the cobblestones and leap, my whole body, my whole being centred on the man in front of me. My sword hits the ground with enough force to shatter the cobblestones but he's fast, too fast, and already he's moving, recovering from the jump that carried him to safety and rushing straight for me._

_Our blades clash, and he towers over me, so big, so strong that it's easy to forget how much older than me he is, how much closer to the grave. I dance backwards and he follows, his own blade cutting through the air, but somehow, somehow he's over extended and I pounce._

_Crunch!_

_He reels backwards, and I'm certain that I've broken one of his ribs. If my blade had been a properly sharpened sword, he'd probably dead. Still, if his sword was real then I'd be dead too, a lot more times than him. _

_He coughs once, a bit of blood, before he smiles. He's never said it, and I don't think he ever will, but I know it all the same. He loves me…._

I wake up to an unfamiliar ceiling. I know what that means. Another hospital. Somehow, that doesn't surprise me, not very much does anymore, though. My chest, it hurts, a lot more than usual. And then it comes back to me. The fight. No, the word 'fight' doesn't even begin to describe it. Remembering what I did, what I wanted to do, 'slaughter' would be a better word.

"Oh, so you're awake?" The door bustles open and the nurse pushes her way in. She seems nice enough, and she chuckles good-naturedly as she checks my injuries. "Got yourself into a fight did you?" She asks with a smile.

Not surprisingly, the smile dies on her lips when I tell her that yes, as a matter of fact, I did get into a fight. She leaves pretty quickly after that and I close my eyes and try to sleep. It's hard though, wrapped up in the hospital bed's sterile hypoallergenic sheets, with the low hum of the air conditioning all around me.

I close my eyes and wait, counting the seconds as they tick by.

One…

Two…

And still, I can't get to sleep. All I see when I close my eyes is the look on Chihiro's face, that look of pure, undiluted fear. I savour it. Still, sleep does not come.

Fifty-one…

Fifty-two…

Where are my parents? Why haven't they come to see me? Do they hate me because of what I did? Have they left me?

One hundred and eight…

One hundred and nine…

I'm asleep now, I'm sure of it. But if I'm asleep, how can I be thinking, how can I know that I'm asleep? Does that mean I'm awake? But if I'm awake, why do I see all these things?

Rain… red… blood… 

I shake my head, trying not to see what I see, even though my eyes are shut.

"_Again!"_

It's that voice, somehow stern but kind… the one from before. Why does it sound so familiar, why does it seem so… so real? It's almost like a dream, no, not a dream… a memory.

"Get up!" 

But… but that's impossible. Saturn wasn't awake during the Silver Millennium, I wasn't, I couldn't have been, all the others, they told me, Setsuna has told me… all of them… over and over again, they told me that I'd never been awake then.

But what if… what if they'd lied?

No, they wouldn't lie to me, I'm their daughter, they love me, they'd never, eve lie to me.

"Did they lie to me?"

"Did who lie to you?" That voice, cool, calm and utterly collected could only belong to one person. Setsuna.

And sure enough, she appears. From the shadows beside my bed, I hear the soft, barely perceptible whisper of her power as she parts the fabric of space and time, shifting from the Gates to my hospital room as easily as a fish through water. Tall and regal, she appears beside my bed and her eyes, those terribly ancient orbs of vivid crimson bore into my own.

"Did who lie to you?" And her voice now is cold, colder than I have ever heard it before. I glance down at her hands and see that she's grasping the Time Staff so tightly that her hands are shaking. Is it anger, or fear, that makes her clutch that staff so tightly?

I want to ask her, to tell her about what I've been seeing, what I've been hearing. But now, now that she is here, all I can say is :

"Where are Haruka-papa and Michiru-mama?"

For a moment she says nothing, until she sighs, a great, tired, defeated sigh and takes a seat on my bed. Without saying a word she reaches over and pats my arm. It's strange, the feel of her gloved hand on my arm. It feels good, somehow. Familiar.

When she looks at me again, it is with Setsuna's eyes, not Pluto's, and her smile is small, but tender.

"I sent them home."

"Why?"

She chuckles, and I can't help but smile. It is a rare thing to hear her chuckle, rarer still when is in uniform.

"Haruka was on the verge of assaulting your teacher."

Some things never change.

"You asked before," she says. "If someone lied to you," her eyes are sad as she finishes. "Who were you talking about."

"You." There it is, out in the open,

She sighs again, that weary sigh that I hate to hear, and slants a sad, tired look my way. "We'll talk in the morning, Hotaru, once you've been discharged."

"All right."

It's always surprised me how the others think that she never shows her emotions, because she does. Not on her face, for she has long since schooled her features into a look of calm, deadly neutrality. No, her emotions dance in her eyes, flickers of sorrow and sadness in pools of almost sinfully expressive red. Or if not in her eyes, then in her hands, with a hug, a pat, a stroke she can say things, express things that she would never say.

Just before she leaves, vanishing in a flash of scarlet light, I take her hand in mine and squeeze, just a little. She squeezes back.

Author's Notes

All right… where to begin? Once again, thanks to all of you for reading this. If you're wondering, Hotaru was sent to hospital after the fight because she collapsed and lost consciousness. Not too mention they'd already called an ambulance for the other girl anyway ;;.

So, as always, get in touch, let me know what you think. And for those of you wondering where the others are, and when there's going to be any fighting, don't worry. It won't be long…


	5. Chapter 5

Sailor Moon Requiem 05 : Funeral Dirge 

It's easy to lose yourself in the speed. To let the car's driving purr and roaring engine steal away your soul. Things are easier like that. All that matters is the next corner. All that you care about is feathering the clutch and shifting up a gear.

I take the next corner a little too fast and the car wobbles, on the verge of a spin. I knock it down a gear and the car steadies. I can't help but grin. At any other time of the day I would've caused an accident by now, but even Juuban is fairly free of traffic this early in the morning, when only the first, faint glimmers of gold can be seen on the horizon.

I find myself on a long, empty straight and let the car stretch its legs, almost laughing when the sidewalk becomes a blur. At this speed each moment seems to last forever, each little shift of the steering wheel seems to take a lifetime. Einstein called it time dilation I call it paradise. It gives me time to think, time to plan. Time to worry.

There was something odd going on. Setsuna had been acting odd, even more so than usual, which said a lot. She'd quieter as well, if that was even possible. Then there was Hotaru. My daughter…

Never once had I ever seen Hotaru retaliate when people teased her. It was comforting in a way, to know that someone who could obliterate entire planets wasn't easily provoked, but some part of me had always wanted her to fight back. But not like this. It took me a while, but when I calmed down I spoke to Setsuna about the injuries the other girl had received.

I almost threw up. I just couldn't see it, my little Hotaru, her small hands pummelling someone else, smashing flesh and bone in a frenzy of rage. Rage and Hotaru… those two words just didn't fit, at least they never did before.

The highway is up ahead, a long, winding section of concrete raised high above the road. It's one of my favourite spots. If you park up there then you can see the whole city. I like to watch the sun rise from there, to feel the wind on my face and see the whole sky light up. Beautiful.

A few minutes later I pull the car to a stop and climb out. It's perfect, absolutely perfect. I can see everything here, and the wind kicks up nice and strong, so strong that I feel almost like if I jump that it will lift me up and carry me away. Wouldn't that be nice?

I take a few steps before I feel it, a low, almost rhythmic rumble. An earthquake? The highway shakes and I hear the deep, bass shudder as concrete and steel tremble and bend. Wait… why aren't any of the buildings nearby moving…

Crack!

A fissure several feet wide ripples across the middle of the highway as the entire structure begins to sway. Damn it, I need to get out of here, I need to get back to the car and-

But the car is gone, as is about half the highway, as the fissure spreads and widens, tearing off entire chunks of concrete, and toppling to the ground. Without even thinking I reach into my jacket for the one thing I always have, my henshin wand.

The transformation hits me with a rush and for a second I am pure power, pure strength, pure speed. I am the wind, the sky and the stars. I am Sailor Uranus once again and now, now there is nothing for me to fear. I am untouchable.

I follow the slabs of concrete down, nimbly dodging between them until I hit the ground and sprint clear of the collapsing wreck. Before I can get far though, a second tremor hits and I look down at the ground to see another spider web of fissures branching out.

Wait… the cracks, they're not like the ones on the highway. They're too regular, too symmetrical. It's almost as if… as they're a part of a pattern…

From deep below the earth, I hear it, an indescribable sound. Like the sound of screaming meal and weeping earth, a cry like the sound of thunder in the sky. It comes again, building and building until the whole ground is shaking.

Something rips out of the ground at the centre of the fissures, something that looks almost like a hand. Only this hand is two metres long…

"Impossible…" I don't even realise that I've spoken the words aloud as the hand turns into a claw and starts to pull the dirt away. A second later another hand appears before the arms and finally the head of an enormous dirt covered monstrosity appear.

It's eyes meet mine for a split second and I can't help but take a step back. They are like stars, twin orbs of emerald flame. Within them I catch a glimpse of something inhuman, something old and dark and deadly. Something evil.

XXXX

"Reports have just arrived of some kind of battle going on in downtown Juuban between one of the Sailor Senshi and some kind of monster."

I turn to look at the television and almost drop my teacup when the reporter disappears to be replaced with footage of what looks to be the highway. It's a mess, almost totally destroyed with enormous clouds of dust billowing outwards, lit every now and then with flashes of yellow light… yellow light – Haruka.

How could I not have sensed this? Wait, what exactly is she fighting? The image of the television shifts to a shaky camera shot of something… oh no. My stomach tightens and for a moment I am overwhelmed with nausea. Please no.

"Setsuna," It's Michiru. "We need to get over there."

Trying to keep my concern off my face I reply, as coolly as I can. "Call the others and get there as fast as you can."

XXXX

Ahhh….

Damn I wish I'd dodged that last attack. That thing that blasted dirt-covered piece of garbage is fast, way too fast for something of its size. It's already clipped me a couple of times and damn, damn, I think I might have fractured a rib or something because it's getting harder to breathe.

I hear it let out another one of those bone-shattering roars as it rumbles towards me again. It takes all my strength just to get up and leap clear as its fist turns another portion of the pavement into a crater.

"World Shaking!"

The blast of tightly focused air smashes into it with the force of a freight train, only it doesn't seem too bothered by that. All the attack does is knock some more of the dirt covering it away and push it back for a second.

I need to get some distance, some separation so that I can call the others otherwise, I smile grimly, broken ribs will be the least of my worries.

"Dead Scream."

A sphere of crimson light rushes past me and slams into the giant. Clumps of dirt and rock topple from its frame as it growls and begins to tear at the rest of the debris coating its body.

"Are you all right?"

I look up to find Pluto beside me, with Neptune not far away and I manage to smile, although I wince.

"What is it doing?"

I turn from Neptune, who asked the question, to the giant as it tears the dirt from its body.

"It is revealing its true form." Pluto's voice is cold, almost glacially so, and I can hear the crackle of power in the air as she lifts her staff and readies another, much stronger attack.

"Stunning…" I hear Neptune say as the giant's true form finally becomes clear.

Where flesh should be there is crystal, pure and clear, that catches the rays of the rising sun and hurls them in every direction. Where veins and arteries would be are streaks of black and red, like ebony and ruby imbedded within quartz. It turns towards us with a low growl, a sound that even from several hundred metres away is as loud as thunder.

"Ready yourselves," Pluto says softly. "We need to fire together, aiming for its chest."

"Right," I say as I grit my teeth and call my own power.

"Uranus you're hurt-," Neptune begins but I cut her off.

"I'll be fine," I say. "Let's just get this over with."

Pluto's smiles then, one of those cold, utterly humourless smiles. "Indeed."

XXXX

I wake up to the deep, bass boom of a distant explosion. I'm upright almost immediately, even though the pain in my chest still hasn't gone. As quickly as I can manage, I stumble my way over to the window and look out. Far off, I can see it, flashes of light, and plumes of smoke, the signs of battle.

Out of the corner of my eye I see the small television resting on a table in the corner of a room. Perfect. I turn it on and flick to one of the all day news channels.

"Yes," the reporter is saying. "There is a battle going on downtown between three of the sailor senshi and some kind of crystal thing. Residents are advised to steer clear of the area for their own safety."

Behind the reporter I can see more plumes of smoke and burst of crimson, yellow and blue light. Neptune, I think, Uranus and Pluto are fighting it, whatever it is. The image shifts and suddenly I'm seeing everything from above, through the jittery lens of a helicopter-mounted camera.

Watching the scene unfold I feel my gut tighten. I know I should stay here, I know I need to heal first but I can't… I can't just leave them to fight on their own. I need to get out there.

XXXX

The giant doesn't even bother to come any closer to me. It picks a car up and hurls about a tonne of solid metal my way. I lash out with my power, the power of time itself. Strands of crimson light flicker out and the passage of time around the car bends and distorts, accelerating the natural decay of the metal thousands of times over. It's child's play then to blast the rusting, rotted wreck to pieces before it can hit me.

"How long till the Inners get here?"

I turn to face Neptune. "They should be here soon."

"I hope so." Uranus has seen better days. Of the three of us, she has been the least able to dodge the giant's attacks, even with Neptune's support. Her breath has become shallow and irregular. I am certain she's broken a rib, probably two or three. She needs to get out of here.

"Neptune," I say as calmly as I can whilst still dodging the cars and other debris that the giant is throwing. "Take Uranus and go, she needs to get her wounds treated."

"Pluto…"

"I will be fine," I say firmly. "Now go."

She stares at me a moment longer before she finally nods and stumbles off, Uranus leaning heavily against her. I wait till they are gone before I turn to face the giant. Later they will want to know why I asked them to aim for the chest, why I've been having more success against it than they have. It is not necessarily a matter of power, but of knowledge. I have fought its kind before.

"Come," I say, knowing that my tone, more than my words will reach the giant. "I haven't all day."

High above me a pair of emerald star-eyes narrow. Playtime is over. We move almost together. I take to the rooftops, unleashing a hail of crimson power not at the giant, but at the ground at its feet. The concrete ruptures and gives way, and the giant stumbles even as it lurches forward.

Its fist smashes the building I am standing on into kindling and there is a moment where I am simply flying, hurtling through the air. I land gracefully, centuries of practise coming to the fore.

It smashes its fist into the ground and I roll desperately to one side as huge spikes of rock rip upwards from the ground, tearing apart the pavement and sending cars flying off in every direction. A four-wheel drive goes over my head and I whip my staff forward, pulling as much magic as I can towards me.

The fabric of magic bends and shifts, and I can hear its scream in my head, as I form the power not into a sphere but a lance, a lance of tightly focused magic, tinged with my own power. I thrust my staff forward and a spear of crimson light ripples out. It strikes the giant square in the chest and the air is suddenly filled with the sound of cracking crystal.

Fuelled by as much magic as I can muster, the lance is imbued with my own, very specific, powers as well. More than just a sharp edge, its point is distorting the flow of time, weakening the crystal, condensing thousands of years of wear and tear into the span of a few seconds. Still the crystal will not give and I wince, trying, trying, trying to keep it up.

With a groan like the snapping of a tree trunk, followed by the sweet tinkle of breaking glass, the giant stumbles backward. Its chest has been torn open, crimson and ebony liquid trickling from a crater the size of a table in its chest. As the flow of liquid slows to a stop I see my target, a pulsing, beating heart of carefully crafted gold.

The giant growls and raised a hand to its chest. The crystal fingers tightened ominously as it turned to face me once again. Before I can muster another attack it moved, faster than I could have imagined.

The impact takes my breath, and almost my consciousness, away. Had it not been for my staff interceding I'd probably be dead. As it is, I go flying, absolutely flying, backwards. A scream almost tears itself from my lips as I cannon through a phone box and several lampposts before coming to a rest in a wall about a hundred metres away.

My staff drops from my suddenly limps fingers. Somehow, it's not been dented, it doesn't even have a scratch. But the world is spinning crazily before me now, and I can feel the sharp stabs of pain from what are probably going to be enormous bruises all over my back, arms and legs. I may also be joining Haruka in the broken ribs department.

I need to get up and by some miracle I manage that. But I can't seem to focus. I call for my magic, for my power, but for some reason nothing will come to me, nothing. The giant is only about fifty metres away, walking slowly and calmly towards me. It can see that I can barely stand.

At the edges of my awareness I feel something else, something besides the crystal giant, something old and ancient and terrible. Something familiar. Hotaru.

The giant pauses as well, turning its emerald eyes to the surrounding area. It picks out slender violet haired figure on one of the nearby rooftops and reaches down to pick up a car.

"Saturn," I scream, wildly, uncontrollably. "Saturn, get away."

But she doesn't hear me, or maybe she doesn't care. She takes another flying leap across the rooftops but she lands awkwardly on the next roof. I can see her fragile form tremble and she raises one hand to her chest. Her injuries…

The giant needs no further cue and hurls the car with as much force as it can muster. I scream again, willing my magic to stop the car. Strands of crimson light arc outwards and they catch the car halfway. The metal structure corrodes in a heartbeat, rusting and fraying and coming apart but it's too far and going too fast, I'll never stop it in time.

I see Saturn look up just in time to see the car. It hits her with a wet thump and explodes, a ball of searing flame engulfing the entire rooftop.

"Saturn!"

Author's Notes

Heh. Sorry for the really long delay between updates. Real life has been a bit busy lately. So… where to start? If you're curious, the point of view change from Haruka to Setsuna to Haruka to Hotaru to Setsuna. Wow. So, as I promised, there was a bit of action and for those of you interested in Hotaru's past, don't worry, this is entirely relevant. Till next time.

As always, let me say, I live off feedback. So tell what you think, good, bad, get another job? Heh. Drop me a line.


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